rod gold 2.jpg
by Penny Lane

Comment:
See if your camera has a setting specifically for sunsets or brightly lit landscapes. This may help to keep the sun from blowing up into a huge, burned out blob. If no scene setting, bump your apertue number way up (f13 or if not available, as high as it will go) and shoot until you are able to preserve color in the sky. For most landscape shots like this, don't use portrait mode (photo taller). And as others have said, fix that horizon!

Tulip
by pellemannen

Comment:
Greetings from the Critique Club
by strangeghost

The first three parts of this critique are written based purely on examination of your photo. "Final thoughts" is written after reviewing your score, photographer's comments, and voter comments.

TECHNIQUE
This image has such beautiful luminosity that it positively glows. It carries much more punch that the typical duotone. The focus is perfect on the near petal, and falls off gently toward the back of the flower, creating a nicely three dimensional feel. The lighting is wonderful, IMO, though a few small areas do appear to have blown out. I don't think this detracts, however. It leaves one with a sense of intense lighting that was well controlled. Your photo information indicates that it was a four second exposure at f5.6. Really? Must have been very dimly lit. The black background with the ray of light arching over the flower is exquisite. Much more effective than a flat black background. Whatever your technique, bravo on the result. I'm viewing (and critiquing) this image on a very bright iMac LCD. I just looked at your image on a traditional CRT and it's much darker and less vibrant on that monitor. I just can't express how beautiful it looks with the added brightness of the LCD screen. This gives me pause as I consider my own submissions, as well as my commenting on others' work. I bet you could have tweaked the brightness/exposure of this image up a bit and had it pop equally as well on CRTs.

COMPOSITION
Because it is an image that is so well done technically, the composition works. I don't know what is causing that arc of illumination over the flower, but I think it might have been even stronger had the flower been offset to the right, allowing the arc of light to frame it a bit. As shot, though, it's quite stunning.

EMOTIONAL IMPACT
Can you tell I like your shot?? It's beautifully simple and elegant, understated but strong. As a study, I can scarcely imagine how to make it stronger. It really works for me.

FINAL THOUGHTS
Your comments were generally very positive and people seemed to react to the beautiful lighting the same way I did. I'm a little disappointed that it only scored 5.77. Just based on the technical merit and over appeal, I would have guessed nearer to 6.0 and maybe even a smidge over. Still, it ranked at the 83rd%ile over all, not bad for a big challenge with lots of strong entries. Kudos to you. You made me pause and appreciate a wonderful work of art.

Dragonwood
by dhumann1

Comment:
Greetings from the Critique Club
by strangeghost

The first three parts of this critique are written based purely on examination of your photo. "Final thoughts" is written after reviewing your score, photographer's comments, and voter comments.

TECHNIQUE
On my monitor (a bright iMac LCD), the background looks extremely dirty with lots of spots and specks visible. Just to make sure my monitor is not at fault, I also used a traditional CRT to view your image. While the background was darker, the specks and spots were still clearly visible. I'm sure that this hurt you in the voting because any kind of distraction that takes the eye away from your subject is bound to irritate the voters. It looks like you had a piece of cloth as background. Moving the background as far back from your subject as possible helps to blur it during the shot. In your case, it looks so close (perhaps even touching that branch to the lower right?) that it's in pretty sharp focus. Any dirtiness will show up as though spotlighted, and that's apparently what happened to you. The lighting on your subject is pretty good, but I think you could have made more dramatic use of shadows, given all the cool textures and protuberances that this gnarled piece of wood provides. Focus looks pretty good, as does exposure, though it is a little washed out at points on the vertical branch extending toward the top. I like your choice of duotone (sepia) but wish the background was darker (or white, which would have been cool).

COMPOSITION
This largely centered composition could work if you had nailed the technicalities. As shot, it has a rather plain appearance. Not to harp on your background, but compositionally, I think it fails miserably. Due to the spots and obvious texture in the cloth, my eye is continually drawn there and away from your subject. The color doesn't really work either. Darker or much, much more diffuse would have added a lot of appeal to the photo.

EMOTIONAL IMPACT
Unfortunately, the technical flaws pretty much eliminate any real impact this photo might have had. I think your subject has considerable inherent visual interest, and wish you could have really isolated that facet and drawn it out. Perhaps a closer crop, or even a near-macro of certain nicely textured regions of the stump, with more peripheral regions softly blurred - again, all with a diffuse, nearly not-there background?? I wonder.

FINAL THOUGHTS
I see that I was a lot harder on your background than your commenters (only one mentioned it!). Your final score of 5.15 put you just under the halfway point of this HUGE challenge. Not bad but I bet you were disappointed. Had you nailed a technically perfect version of this shot, I bet you would have added at least .5 to your score, maybe more given how much commenters liked your tones. I hope I was not too negative with my comments above - I call'em like I see'em. I like your eye. Keep shooting!

Come On Down
by lyta

Comment:
Greetings from the Critique Club
by strangeghost

The first three parts of this critique are written based purely on examination of your photo. "Final thoughts" is written after reviewing your score, photographer's comments, and voter comments.

TECHNIQUE
There are a few technical issues that are fairly evident in this pic. First, the white of the cherry-picker bucket is awfully overexposed. There's also a spot on the bottom of the sawed section of the tree that appears blown. Second, both the tree and the bucket seem tipped over toward the right. This gives the image a very unbalanced feel, disconcerting to most viewers. Focus is not bad. Sharpness clearly suffers in the blown areas, even to the point of drowning out branches where they pass in front. I like your choice of duotone conversions. The browns mesh nicely with your subject.

COMPOSITION
The tilt is problematic, as noted above. Aside from that, the foreground branches may bother some, but given that your subject is a tree cutter, it's more context than clutter. The composition is very centered and not especially interesting. There's no clear point of focus implied. Too bad you couldn't isolate the guy's face and get an expression of intensity, or concentration, or some such. Or a focus on the textures of the tree, or the saw in action, etc. Without a clear focal point, the eye doesn't know where to go and lock, and there's no commanding theme to anchor in the viewer's mind.

EMOTIONAL IMPACT
Pretty bland, I'd say. It really amounts to a shot of a person working. There's no implied drama, no obvious tension, no questions raised in the mind of the viewer. There's nothing here to grab my mind and eye and keep me engaged. I hate to assign the epithet of "just a snapshot" but that's what comes to mind.

FINAL THOUGHTS
Your shortage of comments and disappointing final score indicate that voters felt the same lack of draw or appeal that I did. DPC challenge shots generally need some eye appeal and "wow" factor to score well. In a duotone challenge, where bright colors are pretty much ruled out, need to have technical perfection, and a focal point to give interest; perhaps the textures of the tree bark, or the facial expression of the worker. Some point of interest such as this would have given the image a clear focal point in which to engage the viewer.

Natalie
by kellian

Comment:
Absolutely beautiful portrait that looks very spontaneous and natural.

Flower
by kellian

Comment:
Greetings from the Critique Club
by strangeghost

The first three parts of this critique are written based purely on examination of your photo. "Final thoughts" is written after reviewing your score, photographer's comments, and voter comments.

TECHNIQUE
Lovely duotone here, I think. The brownish earth tone works well as a background to this beautiful flower. The dof leaves the left-most, more distant parts of the flower softly out of focus, which draws the eye back to the petals on the right, which are sharply detailed and wonderfully textured. I also like the way you've controlled the dynamic range to avoid blowing out any of the lighter areas. However, my monitor is fairly bright (an LCD iMac) and I wonder if your details were bright enough for voters who were using CRTs?? I bet this might have looked too dark for some voters, and you might have lost some points in the voting for that. In summary, a beautifully detailed shot that might be a bit dark for some.

COMPOSITION
I love the composition. The de-centered flower, very close crop, and softly bokehed background work very well. The beautiful clarity and balance result in a wonderful study of a flower.

EMOTIONAL IMPACT
If you don't get slammed for being too dark, I think this is a very well-done image, with a nice degree of pop. Just lovely.

FINAL THOUGHTS
Your commenters obviously didn't find it too dark, excellent! Most seemed to like it quite a lot and just gave minor suggestions on composition. Your final score of 5.8 is well above average for this challenge (87th %ile). That strikes me as a bit low (and I wonder if you were disappointed) but this was a very large challenge with lots of attention grabbing shots. In reading your photographer's comments, I was struck by your mention of a border. I went back and did a double-take on the photo and sure enough, there it is! In my estimation, a truly successful border is one that a viewer doesn't notice. Congrats on a perfect border!

Untitled
by nemesise1977

Comment:
Greetings from the Critique Club
by strangeghost

The first three parts of this critique are written based purely on examination of your photo. "Final thoughts" is written after reviewing your score, photographer's comments, and voter comments.

TECHNIQUE
The subject is sharply focused but the very dark segment on the left is a little distracting. I can't tell if it's due to the light or the actual color of the object. Other clues seem to point to it being part of the color of the object. What is it?? Looks like an old gnarled tree trunk or something, with an overall saddle shape. The sharpness and textures are outstanding, and your dof gives the distant background a softness that draws attention back to the subject. Exposure looks good for the scene and lighting appears to be indirect sunlight from an overcast sky. Nice job on the BW duotone, but I wonder if you really captured the full dynamic range available. That looks like snow or ice at the bottom just left of center. Overall, the image seems to lack any clear highlights (as the snow might have been) other than the distant details on the shoreline of the lake.

COMPOSITION
My inability to tell exactly what I'm looking at makes it tough to evaluate the artistic merits of the composition. The centeredness of the subject implies its importance, but it's not clearly a tree trunk, or a segment of a tree, though I think that's what it is. Comp-wise, maybe a slightly wider take of that object would make it clearer what it is, and possibly de-centering the placement as well. Just on the basis of the image, it's tough to tell what your purpose was in making this particular picture. Is it the interest of the object itself? Its placement with respect to the surrounding landscape?? Not clear to me.

EMOTIONAL IMPACT
Emotional impact is a vital element for a truly great image. Does this image have it? I'd have to say not. There's nothing here that strikes me as memorable, and no element of the photo that pops out and grabs my eye. It looks more like a study of some type, but again, I have very little idea what it is I'm looking at. This, I think, is an example of a photo where technical adequacy does not rise above the ambivalence of the subject matter. It's not a bad photo at all, it's just not a terribly memorable one.

FINAL THOUGHTS
Your commenters were also wondering what it was, though it seems as though most who commented liked the image overall. I appreciate that in your photographer's comment, you confirmed that this was an old tree on the summit of the mountain. I doubly think that a wider field would have helped this shot as it would have given the voters a clear frame of reference: a cool gnarled tree is more interesting than a small (but interesting!) part of an gnarled tree. Your final score of 5.37 was above average (63rd %ile) for the challenge, but possibly a little disappointing to you. It was a large challenge that had many outstanding and memorable shots, and yours was likely lost in the mix to the harried voters. Keep shooting. I like your eye!

Valentine's Moment
by dris

Comment:
Greetings from the Critique Club
by strangeghost

The first three parts of this critique are written based purely on examination of your photo. "Final thoughts" is written after reviewing your score, photographer's comments, and voter comments.

TECHNIQUE
While you were obviously going for the dimly lit ambiance, the result may be a bit too dark. Even on my relatively bright LCD monitor, there are too many areas in the photo that are overly dark, and devoid of any detail. It appears as though the candles were the only sources of illumination. While it creates a lovely effect - and I think it worked well overall - it does leave, for example, the girl's face in shadow, while her upper right arm is the brightest object in the scene other than the candle flames (and objects closest to the candles). When dealing with scenes were lighting is so central, keep in mind the inverse square law of light intensity. An object twice as far from the illumination source will only receive 1/4 as much light. Look, for example, at the near wine glass as opposed to the far one, and the illumination of the near wine glass compared to the man's face. It would have been effective to have had at least one more candle out-of-frame to the right, to add some balance to the lighting, while preserving that soft candlelit ambiance. Focus is sharp and I like the fact that your depth of field is large, preserving the bookcases in the background. Books make beautiful backdrops, in my opinion, for a shot like this. Your choice of a reddish duotone is excellent, and complements the title link to Valentine's day, as well as the red wine.

COMPOSITION
I think the composition is very clean and well balanced. I might have cropped a bit tighter to eliminate some of the dead space along the bottom, but that's relatively minor. Referring again to illumination, and how it impacts here on composition, consider the label on the bottle of wine. Bright white and only inches from the light, it becomes the brightest object in the picture, other than the flames themselves. It looks like you rotated the bottle intentionally to hide the larger label (good thing too), but you probably could've removed the label entirely for better effect. One more minor quibble, the candle flames are tilted slightly to the left. I've tried photographing candles before and I can attest to how damned difficult it is to still the air entirely. From that perspective, you did very well, but the slight tilt is annoying. Straight-up steady flames would be sooo much more pleasing to the eye. Overall, it's a very simple and logical composition.

EMOTIONAL IMPACT
In my view, this photo had the potential to be much more memorable if it had been a bit brighter. I'm guessing most viewers appreciated the artistic merits, but were frustrated at the dimness. Dim photos just can't "pop" the way brightly lit, colorful ones can, making this genre of moody photos very difficult to pull off. In conclusion, I think the impact of your photo was dampened by the darkness - moody candlelit scenes are a challenge to the photographer to find the right balance.

FINAL THOUGHTS
Reading over your comments, it is very clear that my hunch about the overall illumination of the scene was correct. Most computer monitors just didn't do justice to your shot. Nearly every commenter expressed some variation on the "too dark" theme. Your final two commenters during the voting, Yanko and Alecnorman, are using bright LCDs, I'd bet you a bottle of wine! If you are using an LCD monitor (as I am) to edit your shots, make sure you have a chance to preview them on a CRT before submitting. In conclusion, I liked your shot a great deal, but you were doomed from the start by the darkness of the scene, particularly the right half where the subjects are located. Your final score of 4.9 almost certainly reflects this fact, quite apart from strong merits of your concept and composition.

"H"
by LucidLotus

Comment:
This image has a very nice three-D feel to it. I like your work with the depth and tones. Very nice job.

Winter Calm
by sgauria

Comment:
Greetings from the Critique Club
by strangeghost

The first three parts of this critique are written based purely on examination of your photo. "Final thoughts" is written after reviewing your score, photographer's comments, and voter comments.

TECHNIQUE
A beautifully clear and contrasty photo. Your duotone of predominantly gray tones works well with the cloudy, foggy appearance of the sky and mountain tops. Nice clarity and sharpness throughout. Focus is spot on. Very nice job of keeping the details in the snow - not an easy job in a photo with so may dark areas as well. Technically a superb job of handling a wide range of brightness. Too bad it was a basic editing challenge. Otherwise, I bet you'd have liked to bring out a bit more drama in the sky?

COMPOSITION
I like the portrait crop and I love the inclusion of the tree branch in the water on the right. It adds just the right touch of foreground interest, and contributes to the moody loneliness otherwise radiated in the photo.

EMOTIONAL IMPACT
As suggested by my comments above, I really like the feel of this photo. It conveys a sense of isolation and solemnity, as well as majesty. And, also as mentioned above, the single tree branch disappearing into the water really adds an element of punctuation to the shot. Your title completes the pictures, a perfect fit.

FINAL THOUGHTS
I'll start off by observing that you should always include a photographer's comment, especially when you're requesting a critique. In addition to not doing that, you provided no technical details (shutter, aperture, ISO). Those elements make it much easier for a CC critique to relate specific comments to your technique.

Those who bothered to comment obviously like it. So, why didn't it score higher? A 5.7 is a perfectly respectable score, above average (79th %ile for the challenge), but I bet you were disappointed. A technically excellent, well composed, but only 5.7? Most likely, it just got lost in a huge challenge, with lots of outstanding entries.